I Love LA
by AmbiNBambi
Summary: A rumor started and Gabriella's life is ruined and the rest of the gang abandons her. She can't take it anymore, so she goes back to LA. The wildcats go to LA for summer vacation. Will she forgive them for what they did or seek revenge?
1. California Love

**Hello people. If you didn't get a chance to read that author's note here's what you missed. I decided to rewrite I Love LA because I had all these ideas bottled up in my head and I reeeeeally didn't like the first version of this story. Some things have changed some haven't while some characters are out and will come later. I just really like this version better and I really hope you do to.**

California knows how to party  
>California knows how to party<br>In the city of L.A.  
>In the city of good ol' Watts<br>In the city, the city of Compton  
>We keep it rockin! We keep it rockin!<p>

California Love by Tupac ft Dr. Dre

"_Do you believe me, yes or no?" Gabriella screamed. Troy and Gabriella were at Troy's house fighting about some rumor. Troy's parents were out at dinner, so it was the perfect opportunity to start yelling at each other. Gabriella had been getting bullied at school because of a rumor, and Troy had did nothing but stand there looking at her helplessly. She needed to talk to him things._

"_I do believe you, it's just…" Troy put his fingers through his hair trying to rip it out. His heart told him she was innocent, but his mind told him she was cheating on him. There were pictures to prove it and what she had done to the gang was awful._

"_If you believe me, we wouldn't be having this fight!" He had never seen her so angry. He always assumed she was the nice girl, never to get angry so easily. This only made him more curious on who she really was, who was she really dating?_

"_Amy was probably right about you," he whispered. Unfortunately for him, she heard him._

"_What does Amy have anything to do with this?" A thought occurred to her. "How do I know you're not cheating on me with her?"_

_Troy was outraged. He knew he was spending some time with the new girl, but how could Gabriella think he was cheating on her. "Why would I do that?"_

"_If you can think that I'm cheating on you, why can't I think you're cheating on me?" She tilted her head in confusion but had a smirk on her face._

"_Don't turn this around on me. You're the one that lied to us!"_

"_How did I lie to you?" This was where she was the most confused._

"_Being the most popular girl at your old school and using me and the rest of the gang for popularity," Troy listed several things._

"_I never said I wasn't popular at my old school, you just assumed that," Gabriella pleaded, but Troy wasn't buying it. "I wouldn't use you guys for popularity. I'm not that shallow."_

_Troy started pacing around his bedroom. He didn't know what to do. Everything made sense. She had a motive. The 'good girl' act was cover up. Why couldn't he believe her! "Maybe if you could prove…" he was cut off._

"_Troy, I'm your girlfriend. I don't need to prove anything to you." Gabriella collapsed on Troy's bed trying to clear her head. She took slow deep breaths before finally getting up to decide on what to do. "You are going to have to choose." _

_He stopped pacing and turned to her with a confused expression. "What do you mean?"_

_Gabriella stood right in front of Troy and looked him intensely in the eyes. "It's either me, the girl you've known since the beginning of the year or that bitch, the one you just met about a month ago, and her rumor."_

"_Don't talk about her like that," Troy growled. Gabriella chuckled dryly._

"_Funny," Gabriella said while grabbing her purse to leave, "you say it like she's your girlfriend." Gabriella started heading towards the door but was stopped by Troy._

"_Gabriella wait…" he couldn't think of anything to say. What was there to say? Their relationship was strained, they both knew it. Some things just couldn't be fixed. Some things had to end. No matter if it was a happy ending or a sad one._

"_I think the best way for you to stop having these feelings is if you only have one girlfriend." _

"_Are breaking up with me?" _

"_Yea, I guess I am." Gabriella opened the door and was about to go when she saw the picture of her and Troy at the park holding hands having a good time. She picked it up and showed it to Troy. That was the day he had given her the 'T' necklace. It was the day they both told each other they loved the other. What had happened to them?_

* * *

><p>She looked so peaceful like a baby. Sprawled out without any covers on her, you could tell that she tried so hard not to fall asleep but couldn't resist. Next to her was a laptop that had multiple tabs and iTunes on it before it went to sleep. Next to her laptop was her iPod touch paused at the song "Thanks for the Memories" by Fall Out Boy. A tall, caramel skinned girl comes wearing a black t-shirt and black pants. The girl rolled her eyes and took the small girl's iPod, putting it on full volume and the craziest song she could find. The petite girl's eyes suddenly opened and swung her arm at the larger girl.<p>

"Did you just swing at me?" she asked in outrage. She gave Gabriella a death glare that would've scared anyone else, but Gabriella just rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry. It's a reflex." Gabriella crawled out the bed taking the sheets with her. It caused her laptop and iPod to fall to the ground yet she just shrugged it off. Gabriella staggered into the kitchen of the apartment she shared with her Aunt Linda. "You want any breakfast?" Gabriella asked her voice raspy since she just woke up.

"Um no because it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon." Denise Davis was Gabriella's best friends since first grade. While Gabriella was the wild and sometimes a bit lazy, Denise was there to keep Gabriella in check. It sometimes became a chore.

"Relax, it's the first week of summer. You're supposed to stay up late and do nothing. What are you doing that's so interesting?" Gabriella countered as she got a box of Cheerios and went to the couch in the living room.

"I have a job working at the mall at one of the makeup counters," Denise said rather proud of herself.

"Well, I have a job, too," Gabriella said while wiping the Cheerio crumbs off her chest, "I got a job at a nail salon."

"Oh really?" Denise question and Gabriella nodded her head. "And when does this nail salon job of yours start."

"It starts at," Gabriella stopped and looked at the clock, "noon. Oh shit."

"That's what I thought."

"I'm gonna go and beg for my job back before I lose it."

"You go do that." Denise smirked and crossed her arms, watching her friend hurry to put clothes on.

* * *

><p>"LA BABY!" A bushy haired boy yelled, getting off the plane. A dark skinned girl followed along with a blonde girl and a shaggy haired boy. The caramel skinned boy was pumping his fist in the air while the dark skinned girl just scowled him for acting so crazy. The blonde girl was wearing an insane amount of pink while checking her nails, and the shaggy haired boy was laughing at the people he called his friends.<p>

"Why are you so excited? This isn't the best place to be," Sharpay said. She had been bitter since her twin brother, Ryan, to go to New York City with his parents while she was stuck in Los Angeles with her aunt and uncle at their mansion. The only good side to this was that her parents let her take Taylor, but she wouldn't go without Chad, and Chad wouldn't go without Troy, and the only reason Troy could go was so he could check on his little brother, Josh.

"What do you mean 'isn't the best place to be'?" Taylor asked "This place is amazing. The history, the architecture, the art…"

"The hot babes," Chad cut in, which earned him another death glare, resulting in another fight.

"Lets just get to the mansion," Troy intervened.

Luckily, Sharpay's aunt and uncle had their personal driver to drive them to the mansion. Chad and Taylor were arguing the whole way while Sharpay was making odd sounds for someone to notice how upset she was. Troy called his mom to let them know they were alright. They finally arrived at the enormous mansion, that you would think would belong to a movie star, they unpacked their bags and relaxed.

"What should we do first?" Taylor was the first to ask.

"Go to the beach, duh," Chad said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Typical LA tourist crap," Sharpay jumped in. "If we were in New York right now we would be going to Broadway, walking around Times Square, and visit the Statue of Liberty. In LA all you do is get a tan, and I could've done that in Albuquerque."

Troy rolled his eyes. "You guys can go without me. I have to go check on my brother. I promised my mom I would."

Sharpay stopped ranting to look up at Troy. "Who's Josh?"

"My little brother," Troy said. Sharpay gave him a look, "he moved here in the summer sophomore year was starting." Sharpay still look at him funny. "You called him the funny looking nerd that liked Star Trek."

"Oh the nerd." Sharpay waved it away and turned on the TV. "I don't know why you look after him. If he was still here you would be at the bottom of the food chain."

Troy rolled his eyes. It seemed he was doing that more since he came here. "He's still my brother, Sharpay."

"Whatever." Sharpay started filing her nails then let out a high pitched squeal.

"What's wrong?" Troy asked.

"My nail broke. This dumb California weather must've done something."

"I'm gonna go." Troy made his way towards the door.

"Wait, drop me off at the nearest nail salon." Sharpay got in panic mode.

"How am I supposed to know were the nearest nail salon is?" Troy asked.

"I don't know just go!" Sharpay said on the verge of tears.

* * *

><p>"Gabriella, I thought I could rely on you, and you're three hours late on the first day. How am I supposed trust you after this?" Gabriella's boss was chewing her out when she first got there.<p>

"It would've been two hours, but traffic was awful and I stopped to get you a burger." Gabriella held out the bag from McDonalds but her boss just threw it away. "Do you know how much that cost?"

Her boss just rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. "I am done with this. You're fired."

"No wait. Give me another chance. I will get my act together. Please, I need the money." Gabriella gave her the puppy dog eyes.

She thought about it for a moment until she gave in "Fine, you still have your job, but if you're late one more time, you're fired."

"Thank you so much. You will not regret it."

Gabriella went back to her counter and heard her boss say something like 'I think I already am'. Gabriella shrugged it off and started texting her friend, Josh. She automatically froze when she looked up to see someone at the door. She saw a blond haired girl, average height with pink from her head to her toes. The blonde was arguing with someone about how she didn't have and appointment. Her boss went up to them to intervene, but the blonde just kept yelling. Gabriella wondered if the girl was always that crazy or if something happened. Finally, the fight ended when the blonde pulled a wad of cash. Gabriella's boss let her to a counter.

_Please not this counter. Please not this counter. Please not this counter. Pleeease not this counter._ Gabriella prayed in her mind.

The blonde came right her way. Luckily, Gabriella was wearing her Lakers hat, so if she kept her head down, the crazy skank wouldn't notice her.

* * *

><p>Josh Bolton was obsessed. Scratch that he was addicted. He had just finished another level of Halo: Reach and now he saw himself as a crazy killer in the Halo world. He had stopped playing Halo a couple years ago, thinking the game wasn't fit for his standards. He recently started again when his neighbor and best friend got him back into it when he found out she beat his stats. He got addicted again except now he wasn't planning on stopping.<p>

There was a huge knock on the door, but Josh's bright blue eyes were still glued to the game. There was another knock, but Josh didn't move. "Grandma, can you get that?" he yelled.

There was a huge bang on the door, and Josh remembered that his grandma was at one of her poker games. "Shit," he cursed under his breath as he shot another person, paused the game, got off the floor, and answered the door. "Gabi, I will murder you for this," He muttered.

"Gabi?" the boy at the door had some similarities to Josh but not many. Both boys had the famous bright baby blue Bolton eyes. Both had shaggy hair except Josh's hair was pitch black while the boy's at the door was dirty blonde. The boy at the door was slightly taller than Josh but not by much. Josh was skinnier and more awkward. The boy was buffer and had more muscle. Josh was paler, and the boy was tanner. The list could go on and on.

"Troy?"

"Who's Gabi?" Troy said. Josh suddenly felt inferior to Troy all over again.

_Leave it to Troy to forget about his own brother for a girl_ Josh thought. "What are you doing here?"

"Didn't mom tell you that I was staying here for the summer? Now back to this Gabi…"

Josh didn't hear the rest. Had he heard him correctly? His brother was staying with him for the summer. This couldn't be right. He had it made in Los Angeles. Hell, Troy was a reason why he left in the first place. Not a key factor but he did play a role. Josh finally felt like he was a part of something. Now Troy had to come along and ruin it like he always did. "What do you mean you're staying here for the summer?"

"A couple of my friends and I are staying here for the summer. What about that is so hard to comprehend?" Troy talked to him like he was a small child.

"Why?" Josh asked still in shock, his game forgotten.

Troy shrugged his shoulders. "'Cause we wanted to."

"Well, you don't have to check on me." Josh went back to playing his game trying to ignore everything that was coming out of his brother's mouth.

"I promised mom I would," Troy said. Troy was good looking _and_ responsible; another reason why Josh envied him.

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Josh said not even looking at Troy.

"Anyways who's Gabi?" Troy asked and Josh almost thought Troy looked desperate.

As if on cue, you could hear a cranky girl ranting from down the hallway. "Josh, you will not believe what happened to me today. That crazy bitch I told you about randomly came in and…"

"Gabi…" Troy whispered, smiling at the sight of her.


	2. If We Ever Meet Again

I'll never be the same – if we ever meet again  
>Won't let you get away – if we ever meet again<br>This free fall's got me so  
>Kiss me all night don't ever let me go<br>I'll never be the same  
>If we ever meet again<p>

If We Ever Meet Again by Timbaland ft Katy Perry

"_Mom, why are we here?" Gabriella asked her mother, walking around the deserted house. The only thing that was there other than them were the boxes._

"_For the last time, my company had us move her for better business." Maria was busy unpacking the boxes while Gabriella was observing her new house._

"_You always talk about doing your own business. Why don't you just do it?" Maria had always been talking about how her boss was unreasonable, and that if she could own a business, she would something she loved to do and something she would always be good at._

"_It doesn't work like that, Gabi." Maria stopped unpacking and followed Gabriella to her new room. "Enough about me, school starts tomorrow, and I want you to actually do the work and not cause trouble."_

_Gabriella rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "What school am I going to?"_

"_East High," she answered and walked out the room. _

"_Sounds boring," she muttered to herself. She went to her new balcony and wished she was back in Los Angeles._

_The next day Gabriella entered East High feeling out of her comfort zone but hiding it. She looked around the school not exactly looking where she was going. A gray metal locker collided with her face, and the next thing she knew she was laying on the floor with a boy hovering over her. As she noticed more detail into the boy she noticed he had the most amazing ocean blue eyes and perfectly messy dirty blonde hair. The boy helped her up and she noticed he had a muscular build but not bulging out like most guys she saw back home. He was a lot taller than her, but she was rather short so most people were taller than her._

"_I am so sorry. I didn't mean to do it. I wasn't looking…" The boy rambled on about how sorry he was but Gabriella wasn't listening. His voice was so smooth. To basically put what Gabriella was thinking. He was hot._

"_It's okay. I wasn't looking where I was going." Usually in situations like these, Gabriella would tell him off, but Gabriella wanted to impress this boy. "I'm Gabriella by the way."_

"_I'm Troy," he said. He helped out his hand and she gladly took. She got off the floor and they started walking to homeroom together._

"_You must be new. I haven't seen you around here before."_

"_I'm from California. My mom's company made us move here." Talking to him almost numbed the pain in her nose._

"_Cool. So we're here. Ms. Darbus is pretty crazy just to let you know." Troy warned her and went to his seat in the front of the class. _

_Gabriella looked around the room and saw different people. An old woman wearing ridiculous clothing and glasses that looked like shades walked in the room. A blonde haired girl with way too much pink strutted into the room texting while a blonde haired boy with a hat on followed behind holding both their bags. She saw a boy with bushy hair with a basketball glued to his hand. She saw an African American girl in a blazer explaining all the current events to the classroom. Gabriella saw Troy in the front and he looked back at her and gave her a wink._

"_This might not be so bad after all," she muttered to herself._

* * *

><p>"Gabi," Troy whispered. Troy blinked a couple of times, not sure if he was seeing correctly.<p>

Gabriella just stared at him, opening her mouth a couple of times but nothing came out. She was feeling a mixture of emotions. One side of her wanted to run up to him and cry in his arms for coming back. Another side of her wanted to run up to him and slap him for making her look like a fool. Instead, she just said the first words that came to mind, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Before Troy could answer Josh interrupted him. "You know Troy?"

"We used to uhh…" Troy trailed off still staring.

"I dumped him," Gabriella said cold heartedly. "We used to date, but I dumped him. I wasn't feelin' it anymore."

Troy stood there, rejected and for the first time in months, Gabriella felt regret. "I should probably get going," Troy said.

"You probably should." There was a little staring contest before Troy went and Gabriella saw the hurt in his eyes. Why was she feeling so much guilt right now?

Josh closed the door and went back to Gabriella. "Something tells me you want to talk about something."

"Right. I saw someone at my new job-"

"I was thinking you wanted to talk about how you knew my brother," Josh interrupted her.

She ignored him at went to his couch. "I told you already. We dated, I dumped him. Why is that so hard to believe?"

"I'm not saying it's hard to believe. I'm saying there's more to the story."

"Anyways," Gabriella changed the subject. "I met up with an old friend at my job, and that bitch got me fired."

What Happened with Sharpay and Gabriella

"Do not disappoint her. She is paying a large amount of money to do this." Her boss gave Gabriella a stern warning before leaving the two girls alone.

"So," Gabriella said in a monotone, "what kind of nails do you want?"

"I want long nails colored pink sprinkled with glitter please. Oh and get rid of those hangnails while you're at it. Make sure to file my nails not too hard but not too rough. I have really sensitive fingers."

Gabriella got to work, not once looking up, afraid Sharpay might see her and who knows what would happen. She had to fight the urge to scream at Sharpay every time she complained or thought of something else to add to her nails. After what felt like forever, Gabriella was finally finished. Sharpay was getting up to leave when she saw was wrong with her nails.

"Oh this just won't do." Sharpay scrunched up her face making Gabriella want to just punch her. "This nail here is crooked."

Gabriella took Sharpay's finger and inspected the nail. "No, no, your finger's moving." She moved her finger in a slanted way to show her.

"My finger wasn't doing that when I came in here."

"Something must've happened to it when you came in here." Gabriella was careful not to let Sharpay see her face as she watched her astonished look.

"I would never do that to my nails. I love them like my children."

"If you loved them so much then why did you break your nail?"

"It's not my fault it's this dumb Los Angeles weather thing."

Gabriella finally snapped. "JUST SHUT THE HELL UP SHARPAY." That made everyone in the salon turn around.

Sharpay was about to retort when she thought of something. "How do you know my name?"

Before Gabriella could come up with a lame excuse her boss came storming in. "That is it. Gabriella Montez, you are fired."

Sharpay gasped, "Gabriella."

Gabriella ran out the nail salon not knowing that her ex-boyfriend was going to be in her apartment building.

"So that's what happened," she finished.

"It sounds like you got yourself fired."

"Whose side are you on?"

"Why would you go to such lengths so you don't have to see her again?" Josh asked confused.

"Because I just didn't want to see her," Gabriella said pouting like a kid. "Don't you have a game to play? I already beat that level by the way."

"I know, that's why I'm playing it." Josh and Gabriella met since the day Gabriella moved next to his apartment. Gabriella didn't like him at first since his last name was 'Bolton' but they soon became video game buddies after Josh found Gabriella's stash of Modern Warfare, Halo, Assassin's Creed, and Portal. Josh helped Gabriella with her homework and other problems like a therapist while Gabriella helped him with girls.

"You're not even doing it right." Gabriella took the controller from Josh and started shooting at the screen.

* * *

><p>Denise Davis thought a job at the mall would be fun. She though playing makeup and telling girls what their shade was would be a piece of cake. She thought this would be an easy summer job for quick cash. It was torture. All she did all day was stop little girls from using all the makeup that made them look like clowns and smear makeup on women in their 40s and 50s, trying her hardest to make them look good and take the blame when they accused Denise of making them look older. She hated having to hide from people she saw from Los Angeles High School, considering she was the captain of the cheerleading squad. The only thing keeping her sane was getting a big soft pretzel covered in sugar and cinnamon and reminding herself the only reason she was doing this was so she could get her new car.<p>

She was standing next to the counter, devouring her pretzel when she saw a dark skinned girl around her age with black hair came in crying. Denise's first instinct was to finish eating her pretzel then she mentally smacked herself for being so selfish. She put her pretzel down and went over to the girl.

"Um…" she started not sure what to say, "do you need any help?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I should get going."

"No don't." Denise saw the girl's make-up and felt even more sympathy. "Let me fix your make-up. You really need it." Denise directed the girl to her counter. She started to fix the girl's make-up but couldn't get that far since she kept on crying. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Me along with a couple of friends of mine wanted to go to LA for the summer. My boyfriend was here with us too because I thought it would be romantic for us. Then the first day we get here, we fight and we can't be alone together or else we fight." The girl said in between breaths. "Then we everyone else left we started fighting over the dumbest thing and we broke up."

Denise didn't know what to say. She never experienced a break up that bad before. "That's awful," she finally managed to say. "I'm Denise by the way but everyone calls me D.D."

"I'm Taylor." They shook hands.

"If you ever need someone to talk to, here's my number." She wrote down her number down on the napkin. "I really hope things with your boyfriend."

Taylor smiled. "Thank you for talking to me. I'm probably a complete mess right now."

"No problem. If you want maybe when you're not busy your friends and I could hang out. I could show you around LA for the summer."

"That would be nice. Now I have to go back to face my maybe ex-boyfriend." Taylor left the store feeling better than she did about her boyfriend problems. She walked in the mansion and saw Chad sitting on the couch looking at his laptop. She opened her mouth to say something but he cut her off.

"I'm sorry. I was being jerk. I had a lot on my mind and I just took it out on you."

"You're forgiven." Taylor sat next to him on the couch. "So what did you have on your mind?"

"Did you ever wonder why I begged you to let Sharpay take me with you on your vacation?" Taylor shook her head no. "I was looking through my dad's old stuff and I found a picture of my mom." Taylor squealed in excitement. Chad never talked about his mom since his dad always told him she did when he was born. "I asked him about it and he said the same thing as always. I did my research and it turns out she's alive here in Los Angeles and I didn't know it."

Taylor squealed again and hugged him. She might get the chance to meet her love's mother. "That's great, honey. Are you going to meet her?"

"I'm still not sure, but while I was looking I found her Facebook page and found her daughter…" Taylor looked at the laptop in Chad's lap and saw her. "Her name's-"

"Denise Davis." Taylor cut in. Chad looked at her confused. "I just met her at the mall. I have her number." Now that she thought about it, they both looked so much alike. Same light brown hair, same caramel skin, same smile. The only difference was her light green eyes.

Chad perked up. "You have her number. Do you think we could meet her? What's she like? Is she nice? Does she know about me?"

"I'll call her later today." She smiled seeing how happy her boyfriend was then she frowned seeing he had that look on his face that meant something else was wrong. "There's something else, isn't there?

All he did was point to the computer screen. She looked at her profile page and saw that she was single, a cheerleader, loved to cook, and loved Chris Brown. She went through her pictures and saw her in her cheerleading uniform and in a hairstyle that oddly made her look even more like Chad. She kept going until she the photos with her with the short Latina. She saw photos of them smiling, pretending to be angry at each other, everything. After a long pause, Taylor finally spoke up. "She's best friends with Gabriella."

Chad just nodded his head. "Yup."

A grinned grew on Taylor's face. "This is great. We can see her, make amends, Troy could get back together with her." Taylor saw that Chad had a guilty look on his face. "Oh my God, what did you did?"

He didn't look at her. "Just promise me you'll let me tell Troy about Gabriella."

"Chad, what did you do?" She asked more demanding.

Before he could get an answer out Troy and Sharpay burst into the door. "Gabriella's in LA."

**So there you have it people. The second chapter. I'm not going to wait another month and a half to update because I'm going to start updating sooner now. I will have the next chapter up soon. Happy Holidays. don't procrastinate studying for exams like i am. merry christmas. **

** Also I imagine **Logan Lerman** as Josh Bolton and **Logan Browning** as Denise Davis. **


End file.
